Politics: July 2007

Consider: Is it just me, or does this seem more like an ad for a Brita Filter than actual political discourse? Then again, their sort of politics could easily be described with a Brita Filter. This is one of Mitt...Read More

This morning I had one of those mornings when I look around and ask myself "What the hell am I doing here?" I was invited to take part in the Maria Leavey Breakfast series, which gets blogger types around...Read More

[EDITOR'S NOTE:] The following is a guest post by Malcolm Lazin. Malcolm is the Executive Director of Equality Forum, a national and international GLBT civil rights organization with an educational focus. Equality Forum undertakes high impact initiatives, produces documentary films,...Read More

From a UPS press release: UPS today announced it would offer health care benefits to all civil union partners of hourly employees in New Jersey who are covered under collectively bargained union plans. Management and administrative employees in the state...Read More

Last week I blogged about the current Indiana property tax revolt and the connection to Indiana's constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage and civil unions. While the story got tons of local coverage, a few thought I had gone off...Read More

In an exclusive post on Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's blog, The Frontlines, CC Goldwater writes movingly about her grandfather, former Senator and presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. Her words remind us just how far the Republican party has strayed from true...Read More

I have written here, here and here about the attempts by Republican presidential candidates to weasel out of the CNN/YouTube Republican debate. Romney is claiming that answering questions in this format is beneath him, Guiliani is claiming scheduling conflicts. So...Read More

Between the Lines is reporting that Tyler Whitney, the gay webmaster formerly of the Tancredo campaign, has moved back to Michigan and is working for an independent, openly gay candidate for mayor of Michael Moore's hometown, Flint, Michigan: The campaign...Read More

Gay activism took another step forward today in Italy, as gay rights groups in the country announced they would protest the arrest of two men who were kissing in front of the famous Colosseum in Rome. As the Associated Press...Read More

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul once ran for the White House on the Libertarian ticket, and he's labeled with the term in his 2008 race, too. But a close look at Congressman Paul's voting record, and his stated views on...Read More

Terry Magnum, a 26 year old from Houston, said in a jail house confession that he was called by God to carry out retribution against a gay man because sexual perversion is the "worst sin". Magnum stabbed 46 year old...Read More

Vermont legislators have announced that they'll form a commission to look into whether or not the state should bump up their historic civil unions to full-fledged marriage. Vermont, you'll remember, was the first state to allow civil unions. Tom Little,...Read More

I think by now most of our readers realize I’m not the biggest fan of Hillary Clinton. Do I think she’ll end up the democratic candidate? Yeah. Will I support her if she does? Hell yeah. But am I excited...Read More

One of the things I hadn't taken into consideration upon launching the project to record anti-LGBT hate crimes on Wikipedia was that it would mean living with each of these stories as I research them and try to gather as...Read More

Right-wing activist Elaine Donnelly has never met a woman or a gay man she liked. Donnelly, who has spent much of her adult life trying to roll back opportunities for both groups in the United States military, now proclaims the...Read More

Bil blogged yesterday about Matt Foreman's speech at the Flush Naugle rally, but I thought I'd pass on this bit of fun. Janet Folger, head of Faith2Action, wrote a completely unhinged column at WorldNetDaily in support of the madness of...Read More

A new agreement between the UK and the US about the information the US will collect about British travelers to the US has been reached. From the Observer: In a strongly worded document drawn up in response to the plan...Read More

Its just another anti-gay attack. And another. And another. And another. Meanwhile, members of Congress are still unable to agree that LGBT people should not be attacked, beaten and murdered. And Republican Senator Sam Brownback throws shade at Mitt Romney...Read More

If Senator Barack Obama is successful in his bid for the presidency (and no, I'm not saying he's my candidate; he's not), former Senator Carol Moseley Braun should throw her hat in the ring to replace him in the United...Read More

The CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate is now history and up next are the Republican presidential candidates. On September 17th, the Republicans will come together in a format similar to the ones the Democrats engaged in on July 23rd. The Democrats had...Read More

The everyday American finally had a chance to weigh in on the presidential race last night in the CNN/YouTube debate. The new age, techno-savvy format allowed videos from everyday citizens to play across a massive screen giving candidates only 1...Read More

So the Senate vote on hate crimes has been put on hold after Senate Majority leader Harry Reid withdrew the defense authorization bill to which the hate crimes amendment was going to be added, after the Democrats failed to...Read More

(This guest post comes to us from Eric Marcus, an NYC-based author who wrote Making Gay History, Breaking the Surface, Is It A Choice?, and several other books on gay issues. He blogs at Up & Out. ~a.b.) David Vitter,...Read More

Gay consumerism reaches a whole new level with the opening of a Whole Foods Market in the glittering new $20 million Chicago LGBT Center. A recent article in the Chicago Tribune (echoed by articles in the Advocate/Gay.com/Planet Out and Queerty)...Read More

Gay consumerism reaches a whole new level with the opening of a Whole Foods Market in the glittering new $20 million Chicago LGBT Center. A recent article in the Chicago Tribune (echoed by articles in the Advocate/Gay.com/Planet Out and Queerty)...Read More

From the Daily Mail: Vikki-Marie Gaynor, 37, who was born a man, claims bosses started cancelling his shifts when he dropped his old name, Mike, and started wearing women's clothes, earrings and make-up to work. The harassment by coworkers...Read More

For the third year in a row, the National Black Justice Coalition proudly and pro-actively participated in the NAACP annual convention. Once again NBJC hosted a prominent tradeshow booth where staff members spoke to hundreds of people and distributed many...Read More

(This guest post comes to us from David Mixner, former strategist and adviser to several presidential campaigns, including those for McGovern, Clinton, and Gephardt. He currently works as an activist for AIDS, LGBT rights, and wildlife. David writes from Turkey...Read More

My best friend, who lives in the suburb of Hollywood (Florida, not California) recently announced that it is time to move. At first, she debated the idea of relocating to the very gay neighborhood of Wilton Manors, in Fort Lauderdale,...Read More

I am pretty excited about the upcoming CNN/YouTube debate that will be on Monday night. No, its not because there will be a chance to see Steve Grove, the cute head of News and Politics for YouTube. I saw him...Read More

Updated - No conspiracy here, says HRC. No favoritism, and definitely no comment on the post-forum fundraising parties. The Democratic candidates for president were allowed to pick the order of......Read More

[EDITOR'S NOTE:] The following is a guest post by Chris Crain. Chris is former editor of the Washington Blade, Southern Voice, and gay publications in three other cities. He blogs at CitizenCrain.com and is the editor of GayNewsWatch.com. He lives...Read More

The Human Rights Campaign and Logo are sponsoring a forum for the Democratic presidential candidates on August 9th and like any good gay, I have a few questions that I want to ask. The forum will be televised live on...Read More

[MOTHER'S NOTE:] This is a guest post by my son, Stephen Suess, who has been traveling in Asia--mostly India--since last October. In what I can only assume was an early mid-life crisis, he quit his job, sold his worldly goods,...Read More

As almost always happens, some major political story breaks when I'm on vacation or traveling, and thus have less-than-ideal- or-immediate web access. Last time it was the Mark Foley story. Last week it was the the controversy over HRC presidential...Read More

While Ft. Lauderdale mayor Jim Naugle is worrying about sex in public beach potties, Equality Florida and other pro-LGBT forces are gearing up for battle over a proposed marriage amendment in the Sunshine State. Anti-gay organizations are working hard to...Read More

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that, apparently, Secretary of State Condaleezza Rice and I share a common passion: bad boys. According to recent reviews of Twice as Good, the new biography of Secretary Rice, she has a penchant for such...Read More

Fresh in from the Human Rights Campaign's legislative director: The 60 vote threshold needed to move to consider the Levin-Reed Iraq amendment to the FY 08 Department of Defense Authorization bill was not reached. After the vote, Majority Leader Reid...Read More

So what's this I'm hearing through the grapevine? No sources will go on record to confirm this, but it seems that property taxes aren't the only subject of conversation for Indiana state lawmakers right now. (For those who don't know,...Read More

When I first accepted Bilerico's invitation to blog here, Bil cautioned me that some of our readers might be taken aback at the idea of an LGBT military activist blogging on a progressive site. But there are many good reasons...Read More

From TNR's transcription of Stephen Hayes's new book on Cheney, we get this quotation from an interview with GWB on the subject of Mary Cheney: "My only ask was that if his daughter doubted my tolerance to her orientation that...Read More

OK, after the whole "John Edwards paid a lot of money for a haircut" controversy, I wonder if we're going to be hearing a whole lot from those same people about this story about Mitt Romney using $300 of campaign...Read More

We've all heard the old maxim, "All politics is local." While we talk a lot on TBP about national politics and state-level, there's one area of activism that's vitally necessary - the local level. We'll never get anywhere as a...Read More

The progressive gay blogosphere has arrived and the rest of the political world is cordially invited to take notice. The addition of former Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK) to the upcoming Democratic presidential candidate forum sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign...Read More

To achieve change on behalf of the LGBTQ community, it's going to take all of us doing everything we can. The civil rights struggle of the 60s wasn't won by African-Americans sitting on their duffs and hoping someone would get...Read More

After all that talk about the HRC/Logo debate last week, it's interesting to look at other social class specific debates that are happening. Here's a photo from the NAACP debate in Detroit last Thursday: That's Tom Tancredo standing all alone...Read More

Audio from the "Liberating Gender and Sexuality" plenary at last month's U.S. Social Forum is available here. Moderator: Suzanne Pharr Speakers: Andrea Smith, Mia Mingus, Loretta Ross, Imani Henry, and Betita Martinez (The plenary begins after a pre-show by participants...Read More

Audio from the "Liberating Gender and Sexuality" plenary at last month's U.S. Social Forum is available here. Moderator: Suzanne Pharr Speakers: Andrea Smith, Mia Mingus, Loretta Ross, Imani Henry, and Betita Martinez (The plenary begins after a pre-show by participants...Read More

Audio from the "Liberating Gender and Sexuality" plenary at last month's U.S. Social Forum is available here. Moderator: Suzanne Pharr Speakers: Andrea Smith, Mia Mingus, Loretta Ross, Imani Henry, and Betita Martinez (The plenary begins after a pre-show by participants...Read More

Joel Rozen called me the other day to interview me for a story he's writing for Creative Loafing in Sarasota, Florida about the fact that this year’s PrideFest was canceled by the organizers due to fears that it was becoming...Read More

Reliable sources are telling me that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has accepted HRC's invitation to debate on LGBTQ issues. I'm also hearing grumbling that some in the community are unhappy about the lack of minorities involved in the planning...Read More

Here's a fun video of homobigoted pastors rallying on Capitol Hill against hate crimes legislation on Wednesday. Lies upon lies. Rusty Lee Thomas, who's mentioned in an earlier post, is seen bleating this winner: "Yes, I dare state that...Read More

If the country seems increasingly hungry for a change in power, I’d say the LGBT community is desperate. We’ve been taking it on the literal and figurative chin for years, and the extent to which anti-gay ignorance and bigotry has...Read More

For the past two days, I've been urging for the inclusion of former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel to be included in a presidential forum being sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign and Logo Network. This afternoon, HRC announced that Gravel...Read More

On Tuesday, I blogged about Bill Richardson using the Spanish equivalent of "faggot" on Don Imus' radio/television show. The background can be found here in an article by Chris Crain and Karen Ocamb. I'd like to add one point and...Read More

[EDITOR'S NOTE:] The following is a guest post by Thomas Heald. Thomas is for many, "the Pridelets guy," author and editor of nearly 3000 different daily bite sized chunks of LGBTQ history. His Pridelets can be found at PageOneQ.com and...Read More

James Holsinger had his confirmation hearing in the Senate today. Here's a bit of his opening statement: Since my nomination on May 24, there have been several statements made about me. Questions have been raised about my faith and about...Read More

Those of us in the student and anti-Vietnam War movement in the late 60s loathed the Johnson Administration. One of our most passionate chants was “Hey, hey LBJ! How many kids have you killed today?”...Read More

Mike Gravel has a post up at the Huffington Post about being snubbed by the HRC. Here's a bit: Fighting for a hated minority is a pretty dumb way to get elected president. And obviously it hasn't helped with my...Read More

Yesterday, I blogged about HRC snubbing uber gay supportive Presidential candidate Mike Gravel. I've spoken to Senator Gravel and his spokesperson. He very much wants to be a part of the forum, given his long standing commitment to equality. HRC...Read More

This has to be one of the funniest stories I've come across lately. After John McCain's presidential campaign has taken the "Straight to the Bottom Express," news surfaces that he already has a scapegoat for his floundering. Gee - what...Read More

From Radar Online: In the final days of his imploding candidacy, John McCain has taken a page out of Richard Nixon's play book, finding increasingly bizarre explanations for his political failures. Strangest of all: He reportedly feels his handlers forced...Read More

What caught me off guard when I watched the Media Matters clip of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on the Don Imus show last year was how casually and easily the word “maricón” fell from Richardson’s lips. “Maricón,” as you...Read More

Okay, so the candidate is Mike Gravel. The Vegas odds makers aren't betting he'll pull off an upset victory in any of the early contests for the Democratic Presidential nomination. But, he's about as pro-equality as a candidate for office...Read More

Michele Wang, the Chicago lesbian denied access to a homeless shelter because of her sexuality, and Reverend Bud Ogle, who manages that homeless shelter, have reached an agreement, according to the ACLU: The shelter agreed to reaffirm its opposition to...Read More

As the Senate preps for confirmation hearings on his anti-gay would-be successor, former US Surgeon General Richard Carmona tells Congress: The administration... would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison,...Read More

Just last week, Barack Obama had a frat boy moment, where he felt it necessary to remind the audience at Howard University that he was indeed heterosexual. Now we hear that Bill Richardson, who has been aggressively courting gay money...Read More

[EDITOR'S NOTE:] The following is a guest post by Michael Crawford. Michael is an African-American LGBT activist and blogger based in D.C. He has worked to advance LGBT civil rights at the national and state levels as a former staff...Read More

At Kenyon Farrow's blog, Tamara Nopper questions the GI- and veteran-focused turn of the U.S. antiwar movement. "I struggle," she writes, "with some of the deep contradictions embedded in GI and veteran-focused work and what it means for organizing not...Read More

After last week's ex-gaying of Michael Glatze, which happened with a yawn as the cycle of ex-gays being pornographically paraded around right-wing news sources just continued as it always does, Donald Hank thinks he's stumbled on a way to end...Read More

In Sean's post from last Thursday, "Why 'sodomize' and not 'rape'?," he writes: Every time the media or law enforcement uses the term "sodomize" they are really talking about rape. The more we allow that term to be used and...Read More

(This guest post comes to us from Eric Marcus, an NYC-based author who wrote Making Gay History, Breaking the Surface, Is It A Choice?, and several other books on gay issues. He blogs at Up & Out. ~a.b.) I think...Read More

The mayor of Fort Lauderdale thinks that there's a huge problem with sex in public restrooms down there. From 365gay: Naugle wants the city to buy a portable bathroom called a 'robo-john' and have it placed on the beach at...Read More

Just got this in my inbox from the LCR about their DC fly-in next Friday for "Trustee" level donors (I can't find a parallel document on their site, so, sorry, no link): Supporters who are giving at the "Trustee" level...Read More

A big congrats on the relaunch -- The Bilerico Project is a cool place to be invited to post. So many voices, much to read and take in. For my first foray into the Project, I thought that I'd share...Read More

On this Independence Day, I think it's appropriate to reflect on the state of post-9-11 America. When I think of 9-11, six years after the fact, I have a horrible sense of loss. Not just the tragic loss of life,...Read More

As I was writing this column, Cindy Sheehan quit the peace movement. Sheehan said she'd realized that her son "died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be...Read More

Today, the Indianapolis Star writes about Jeanne Atkins, devout Catholic, cheesecake producer, and mother of gay stroke victim Patrick Atkins. Except that the Star left out that last bit. The entire article is about a (blessedly, optional) prayer group she's...Read More

Your browser is not able to display this multimedia content. When a friend of mine mentioned that Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace (or Global Trade-Off and Code Pinkerton, as someone posts on San...Read More

Your browser is not able to display this multimedia content. When a friend of mine mentioned that Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace (or Global Trade-Off and Code Pinkerton, as someone posts on San...Read More

First off... Congrats to the Bilerico family. The new site is already generating buzz and I'm honored you've asked me to be a part of it. And here's some interesting news... Remember Robert Traynham? Two years ago this month I...Read More

From CNN: President Bush has commuted the prison term of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, facing 30 months in prison after a federal court convicted him of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. Earlier Monday,...Read More

From CNN: President Bush has commuted the prison term of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, facing 30 months in prison after a federal court convicted him of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. Earlier Monday,...Read More

As we commemorate the Fourth of July with festivities across the nation, many of us will not be celebrating because of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that has turned back the hands of time, driving us back to this...Read More

The National Law Journal is reporting the following lawsuit: A Massachusetts bar examination applicant [Stephen Dunne] who claims he failed the test because he didn't answer a question about homosexual marriage and parenting is suing the test administration agency, the...Read More